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International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

No, I will not give way. The hon. Gentleman had plenty of time. I will come to the main points that he made. I can give examples not just of repetition, but of points that are being made in support of amendments and new clauses that do nothing whatsoever to strengthen the Bill. Indeed, they weaken it. For example, amendment No. 3 to clause 1—I will go through this quickly—seeks to prevent combination with other reports. We were told on Second Reading that we were seeking to do too much and now when we recommend that, for example, the departmental report should become part of the report to Parliament, somehow or other that is seen as unacceptable. What we seek to do avoids duplication, saves money and leaves scope for more detailed reporting if necessary. In joining in the tributes to the late Eric Forth, may I say that on Second Reading, he expressed the strong view that he found repetition unacceptable, as well? He did not oppose the Bill. I turn briefly to country numbers and criteria. I welcomed the excellent speech from the hon. Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Ellwood), which was made all the more relevant by the fact that he sat through the whole of the Second Reading debate and the Committee sitting. Many of his proposals were taken on board—not least in terms of the countries that will be covered. The number was 10 at Second Reading. It is 20 now. The Minister told the Committee that the Government would report on 25. That is appropriate given that that is based on public service agreements, which have the importance of providing a specific focus on pursuing the millennium development goals, which, incidentally, were not even mentioned in amendment No. 11. We have made considerable progress in that respect and I am glad that the hon. Gentleman acknowledged that. I now come to the contribution of the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash). Although it would not be expected that the Bill would deal exclusively with corruption—nor should it—it simply is not true that we have not taken that matter seriously. Clause 6(2)(c) reflects many of the points that he made. The hon. Gentleman has made many relevant points about corruption both today and on other occasions. However, the Department is pursuing corruption; there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that it takes corruption lightly. When we have the opportunity to debate the hon. Gentleman’s International Development (Anti-corruption Audit) Bill, as I hope we will, many will say that it is the correct vehicle to deal with his arguments. However, given what clause 6 will do on corruption, the British people would be absolutely astounded by any attempt to delay my Bill with such arguments, and I am sure that that would not be the wish of the House.